A high-carb diet, and the attendant high blood sugar, are associated with cognitive decline.
While this theory has been floated about in the medical community for a few years, this is the first in-depth analysis I've seen to corroborate the hypothesis that elevated blood sugars are related to dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
An article published in January inThe Atlantic sheds a bit more light.
In a 2012 study, [the researchers] broke nearly 1,000 people down into four groups based on how much of their diet came from carbohydrates. The group that ate the most carbs had an 80 percent higher chance of developing mild cognitive impairment—a pit stop on the way to dementia—than those who ate the smallest amount of carbs. People with mild cognitive impairment, or MCI, can dress and feed themselves, but they have trouble with more complex tasks. Intervening in MCI can help prevent dementia."
You can read about this in more detail here.
While it stands to reason that high levels of glucose in the blood will damage the blood vessels in the brain in the same way it causes damage to the vessels in the heart and the nerve pathways throughout the body, what's fascinating about this research is the connection to insulin. There's something called an insulin-degrading enzyme, a product of insulin that breaks down both insulin and amyloid proteins in the brain—the same proteins that clump up and lead to Alzheimer’s disease.
The article states, "People who don’t have enough insulin, like those whose bodies’ ability to produce insulin has been tapped out by diabetes, aren’t going to make enough of this enzyme to break up those brain clumps. Meanwhile, in people who use insulin to treat their diabetes and end up with a surplus of insulin, most of this enzyme gets used up breaking that insulin down, leaving not enough enzyme to address those amyloid brain clumps."
The common theme here is hyperinsulinemia, a state where there is too much insulin circulating in the body, essentially. Type 2 diabetics who eat carbs are in a constant state of hyperinsulinemia, as they produce enough insulin but their bodies don't "use" it properly. This means that the more carbohydrate they eat, the more insulin the have in their bodies. We see from this research the risk of Alzheimers this creates.
In Type 1 diabetes, where the patient doesn't produce an adequate amount of insulin, the injected insulin in large quantities will create the same scenario, without enough of the enzyme needed to break up the amyloid brain clumbs. How do you use less insulin? Less carbohydrate.
Time and again research shows that low carb is a healthy option for people with diabetes, and yet diabetes educators, including a few high profile voices in the diabetes community, continue to attempt to discredit any research that shows that their "carb up and shoot up" advice is detrimental, dangerous and, dare I say, deadly.
An article published in January inThe Atlantic sheds a bit more light.
In a 2012 study, [the researchers] broke nearly 1,000 people down into four groups based on how much of their diet came from carbohydrates. The group that ate the most carbs had an 80 percent higher chance of developing mild cognitive impairment—a pit stop on the way to dementia—than those who ate the smallest amount of carbs. People with mild cognitive impairment, or MCI, can dress and feed themselves, but they have trouble with more complex tasks. Intervening in MCI can help prevent dementia."
You can read about this in more detail here.
While it stands to reason that high levels of glucose in the blood will damage the blood vessels in the brain in the same way it causes damage to the vessels in the heart and the nerve pathways throughout the body, what's fascinating about this research is the connection to insulin. There's something called an insulin-degrading enzyme, a product of insulin that breaks down both insulin and amyloid proteins in the brain—the same proteins that clump up and lead to Alzheimer’s disease.
The article states, "People who don’t have enough insulin, like those whose bodies’ ability to produce insulin has been tapped out by diabetes, aren’t going to make enough of this enzyme to break up those brain clumps. Meanwhile, in people who use insulin to treat their diabetes and end up with a surplus of insulin, most of this enzyme gets used up breaking that insulin down, leaving not enough enzyme to address those amyloid brain clumps."
The common theme here is hyperinsulinemia, a state where there is too much insulin circulating in the body, essentially. Type 2 diabetics who eat carbs are in a constant state of hyperinsulinemia, as they produce enough insulin but their bodies don't "use" it properly. This means that the more carbohydrate they eat, the more insulin the have in their bodies. We see from this research the risk of Alzheimers this creates.
In Type 1 diabetes, where the patient doesn't produce an adequate amount of insulin, the injected insulin in large quantities will create the same scenario, without enough of the enzyme needed to break up the amyloid brain clumbs. How do you use less insulin? Less carbohydrate.
Time and again research shows that low carb is a healthy option for people with diabetes, and yet diabetes educators, including a few high profile voices in the diabetes community, continue to attempt to discredit any research that shows that their "carb up and shoot up" advice is detrimental, dangerous and, dare I say, deadly.
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